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'As well as being such an intelligent woman, I would say she had psychopathic tendencies.'

Andrea Riseborough played a young Thatcher in the film The Long Walk To Finchley, while Meryl Streep played the politician's older years in The Iron Lady

She added: 'As I understand it, the term
implies a tendency not to feel as much guilt about one's actions as
perhaps one ought to.'

Riseborough, who starred in Madonna's
WE, is up for an EE Bafta Rising Star award, which recognises new
talent in the film industry.

The actress said the former PM is still 'untouchable'

The actress had spoken to Meryl Streep, who performed Lady Thatcher's later years in The Iron Lady, about the politician.

The film was met with controversy as it depicts and ailing Lady Thatcher, who suffers from dementia, looking back at her life.

Streep said that the film had given her a fresh perspective of the politician: 'It was interesting to look at the human being behind the headlines … in the winter of that life and to have a compassionate view of someone with whom I disagree.'

In a 2008 interview, the actress said although her politics conflicted with the former Conservative prime minister, she admired her for her struggle over sexism and making her mark in politics.

Riseborough said of Thatcher's struggle in the Fifties to overcome appalling male prejudice: 'Certainly, my politics aren't the same as hers, but what I had was huge admiration for what she did.'

Riseborough grew up in Whitley Bay, England.

At an early age, she appeared at the People's Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2005.

Lady Thatcher, 87, is the longest-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of the 20th century, and the only woman ever to have held the post